I am not an ant thief in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 394, Qingzhou that is about to collapse
June of the first year of Xingping in the Han Dynasty (AD 194)
Qingzhou, Beihai County!

Since the drought broke out this year, all parts of Qingzhou have been affected, even Xuzhou has been affected by the disaster!
Faced with such a drought, Cao Cao dispatched hundreds of thousands of troops to dig water canals, learn how to make waterwheels, use wooden barrels to carry water to irrigate wheat, and tried every means to preserve this year's grain harvest.

Cao Cao's background is not as good as Yuan Shao's, and the harm of his military expansion and preparation for war these years has fully exploded in this drought. Cao Cao, who does not have much food in his hands, can't even rescue his soldiers now!

The soldiers following Cao Cao, although the land was distributed, it didn't take long for the land to be in their hands. In addition, the Han Dynasty has suffered from natural and man-made disasters these years, and these soldiers' families don't have much savings. After this drought, the entire Qingzhou will be out of food.

And Tao Qian in Xuzhou was killed by him and Yuan Shao together. This time he couldn't find an ally to raise troops.

It is a drop in the bucket to ask for food from the noble families in Qingzhou. Qingzhou has been at the center of the war in the Han Dynasty for a long time. In the past 10 years, there have been only two or three years without natural disasters and man-made disasters. The old saying is true, the landlord's house has no food left.

Beginning in April, the people of Qingzhou continued to flee to the Dagan Kingdom north of the Yellow River. In June, the drought did not slow down. This time even Cao Cao's soldiers began to despair and fled to Hebei.

Faced with such a situation of internal and external troubles, Cao Cao could only send more soldiers.Constantly patrolling the south bank of the Yellow River and arresting the fleeing people is to increase the relief to his subordinates and lead the people to dig various water conservancy facilities to find ways to relieve disasters.

Cao Cao can only rely on the food and grass in his treasury to support his soldiers and maintain the stability of Qingzhou!

But these measures of his are in vain in the face of such a century-old drought, and even his treasury's grain storage is about to bottom out.At this time, Cao Cao was completely a mouse in the maze, unable to find a way out.

Now Cao Cao can only lead the civil and military officials of Qingzhou to dig water canals with the people in the fields, and use this method to encourage the people of Qingzhou and let them know that the court has not given up on them.

At noon on the same day, Cao Cao took his confidants to rest beside the field.

"Wen Ruo, has the envoy sent to the court returned?" Cao Cao asked Xun Yu who was beside him.

The only one who can get food now is Liu Bei in the south. In Cao Cao's view, the south of the Yangtze River is densely covered with water networks and swamps are everywhere.Drought is even a good thing for Jiangnan, so that Jiangnan can develop the swampland in Jiangnan at a low cost.

Xun Yu sighed and said, "Although he hasn't come back yet, I'm afraid there won't be any good news. For the past two years, Liu Bei has used troops every year, and the food and grass consumed will not be too small. Moreover, the messenger sent news that the south has been hit by heavy rain. Liu Bei has to find a way to help the victims, I'm afraid Liu Bei won't be able to provide food to support us!"

One more thing Xun Yu didn't say is that Cao Cao and Yuan Shao took advantage of Liu Bei's expedition to Yizhou to destroy Xuzhou. Now that Liu Bei has opinions on both Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, it is impossible to use food and grass to support the two of them.

Cao Cao said helplessly: "God wants to kill people. We haven't got a drop of water here, but there is heavy rain in the south. This is trying to destroy me!"

Then he asked Guo Jiadao: "How is the situation in Fengxiao Hebei?"

What Cao Cao is most worried about now is that they suffer disasters here, but Hebei does not suffer from drought, but instead has a bumper harvest of grain, then they are really doomed.Lei Gong will definitely seize this opportunity to attack the Central Plains, and they have no power to fight back.

Guo Jiadao: "Drought broke out in both Bingzhou and Jizhou. Lei Gong personally led the civil and military officials in Hebei to build canals and make waterwheels, but it is difficult to make much difference in the face of such a century-old drought. Hebei's grain production is bound to be reduced, but not Knowing how much production will be reduced, if Lei Gong doesn't want people in Hebei to starve to death in this situation, he won't be able to mobilize troops!"

Cao Cao nodded. What he admires most about Lei Gong is that in this troubled world, he is the only one who is really doing his best to treat the victims. Back then, Emperor Ling wanted to move the disaster to the east and drive millions of victims of the big Han to Bingzhou. Lei Gong could completely close the pass , to prevent the disaster victims from entering Bingzhou, but Lei Gong did not do this, but opened the pass, and spent a huge price to treat these millions of disaster victims!

This action made Lei Gong stand out from the other Yellow Turban Army, and gained a lot of prestige for Lei Gong. The big man did not regard Lei Gong as a bandit, but as a separatist prince!
This year's drought is so severe, as long as Lei Gong doesn't want the Central Plains to be starved and starved, it is impossible to send troops south.

Cao Cao asked: "How many months can our food and grass last?"

Xun Yu smiled wryly and said, "Up to three months, we will not be able to help the victims in the future. If the autumn harvest is reduced by more than half in three months, the people will not even have enough food to support themselves, and it will be even more impossible to pay taxes. But if we don't receive food, our Qingzhou Mufu's finances will collapse!"

Cao Cao sighed, "Food! Food! Where can I find food now?"

Xun Yu thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, you can send someone to contact the elites in Qingzhou to borrow food! Now we can only bear it to death, and when other people around us can't bear it, we can annex other forces to tide over the difficulties!"

In Xun Yu's view, among the powers of the princes in the world, they and Yuan Shao are the weakest. Whether it is them or Yuan Shao, as long as they can't hold it, other forces will definitely annex it. If they want to survive now, they can only carry it to the end. There was turmoil in Yuan Shao's forces.

Cao Cao sent someone to look for Kong Rong. Now Kong Rong is the middleman between Cao Cao and Qingzhou clan, and he will talk to Kong Rong first if he has any ideas.And Kong Rong will also try to persuade the powerful and noble families in Qingzhou to support Cao Cao!

Two people who became life and death enemies online in another world have become close friends in this world.

Soon Kong Rong came to Cao Cao and asked, "I don't know what brother Meng De wants to ask me for?"

Cao Cao said: "The situation in Qingzhou can also be seen in Wen Ju. During this period of time, more than 10 people have gone to Hebei, and the Qingzhou government is almost out of food. Qingzhou will surrender to Lei Gong without a fight, so I can only have the cheek to borrow 300 million shi from Wen Ju and you, as long as this drought is over, I will definitely repay you twice as much!"

But Kong Rong frowned and said: "Although we still have some food, each of our families has to feed tens of thousands of people, and we also need to feed the soldiers and their families in our hands. We don't even know if we have to feed so many people." Can survive this drought, there is no way to find food to lend to Brother Meng De!"

Now the clans like Kong Rong have become warlords, and the soldiers are for the generals. The warlords like Kong Rong will naturally find a way to feed their soldiers, otherwise who will give them their lives!To some extent, this can be regarded as reducing Cao Cao's burden.

Kong Rong asked instead: "Brother Meng De, did you capture half of Xuzhou? Tao Qian didn't raise many soldiers, and he didn't pay taxes to the court in recent years. Logically speaking, the money and food should be very rich?"

"The food and grass can save the entire Qingzhou, but it won't make you run out of food so soon, Brother Meng De?"

Cao Cao said helplessly: "The money and food in Xuzhou have been annexed by the local tyrants, and there are not many left in this treasury. After we captured half of Xuzhou, we only seized hundreds of thousands of shi grains and 5000 million yuan, and we barely got it back. Unleashed warlord!"

Kong Rong said angrily: "We broke up our family in Qingzhou to resist Lei Gong, and Xuzhou's elites not only did not do their best to resist Lei Gong, but also hindered us. Brother Mengde should ask Xuzhou's elites to borrow food, and now they have forage!"

Kong Rong's words made Cao Cao's eyes brighten. The nobles in Qingzhou can be regarded as sharing life and death with him, but the clans in Xuzhou can't even be counted as their own. They also annexed the money and food from Xuzhou county government treasury. At this critical moment, of course, they had to kill some forces that were not their own to maintain the situation. Now there are fatter pigs than the Xuzhou clan!

(End of this chapter)